The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-08-15
THE MIND CURE.
WHAT IS ASSERTED BY THE Apos-
TIES OF THIS OPTIMISTIC CREED.

The system Held in High Esteem At
Ancient Athens-NIind and Matter.
Nervousness and Hysteria-A Hopeful
Sign-Semi-InvaIids.
Shakespeare, the Universal saaros 70
have formulated the theory of the nev-
school of healing when he makes Hamlet
S2y that there is nothing either good or
had but thinking makes il So Perhaus
We should not speak Of that system a
new that would appear To have been
ia high esteem at ancient Athens. and that
had an extraordinary vogue in the east al
the beginning of our era. At first thought
the present interest and excitement in the
subject seem unreal and anachronfstic.
But, after all, is it not natural and fitting
that the mind should be most easily and
abs"rbingly occupied by matters pertain
Ing 10 the mind itself
To accept the doctrine Of the mind cure
as we understand it, is to believe that
health, SANITY and virtue are the normal
attributes, the birthright possession OF
man. Disease, dementiassin. are NEGATIVE
conditions which it is weak. disbon0rable
and sinful to harbOr. Refuse to believe
in illness, deny pain, resist weakness, -
ay the apostles Of this optimistic creed
and illness, pain and weakness vanish
because they exist only in your thought
OF them. Suffering is simply that state OF
mind that makes you imagine that Won
suffer. You have only to get above suf-
fering"
The influence of mind over matter
hardly needs assertion. The old illustra-
tons Of the moral philosophers alone are
proof enough. The miner diving of fright
on finding his sustaining rope too short
in the pitch dark mine with his feet i'm
reality SIX inches from the ground; the
bllndtolded man fainting in the belief
that he was bleeding to death when ONLY
warm water was trickling down his arm:
the workman undergoing the horrible
manifestations Of cholera because he was
told falsely that a cholera victim had lust
died in the same bed-shOw the effect Of
belief. The madness of the insane. which
is but perverted and exaggerated will
power, gives them the strength of = dozen
sane men. And quite lately the shock OF
the earthquake in the Riviera reused a
bedridden woman to rush down four
flights of stairs to the safety Of the street
WHAT THE LANCET SAYS.
Even The London Lancet, which is
nothing if not conservative. asserts that
in some cases mind has such an effect
upon all organic disease as to cause new
and healthy formations. This, it will be
seen, goes far beyond the old admission
that nervousness and ''hysteria'' were
I
doubt that the tendency of the medical
profession has been decidedly material
istic, and that any leaning toward spirit
ual methods, as shown in ''magnetiSm 80
''hypnOtism, - ''clairvoyance" and their
like, has been made at once disreputable.
so that any germ of truth they may have /
possessed was smothered out of sight
Yet the little we know of the potency of
the mind over the body shows us that
there must he an iIlimitabIe fold fDr. if |
action, if we could but find ont how to set |
it at work. And it would seem that our |
help must come chiefly from within, not
from without 9 'ris in ourselves that |
we are thus or thus
1t appears to us a hopeful sign Of q !
more wholesome life that large classes OF |
women take time and spend money tc /
hear this theory of the reality of spiritual |
existence eXpoundcd. After the poet /
they are discovering that soul is form /
and doth the body make" They are
semi invalds They have suffered. They
have allowed their thoughts TO dwell
upon their pains and limitations until
these have come largely to fill their men
tai horizon. Their talk is of sickness
Even young girls, among the well to do
and idle classes, compare symptoms and
suggest diagnoses as staple topics of con
versatiOn. Nothing could be worse, it
seems to us, on the score of good taste or
of good health. As dwelling upon ones !
griefs magnifies them, so dwelling upon
ones pains magnifies them. If the mind
cure can be made to work upon these
subjects it must restore to activity ener-
gies worse than wasted; il would save !
time aud money: it would make a gray |
world into joyous one; it would multi
ply past calculation the sum of human
happiness. -Harper's Bazaar.